The pour was a dark mahogany/copper red with a one finger head that quickly dissapated and left a thin white lace on top of the beer.

The smell was more like a pilsner skunk than a bock to me. The front was a malt sweetness mixed with a pilsner skunk. The back was more of the same. Don't get me wrong, there really is nothing wrong with that pilsner skunk, I just don't want it in a bock.

The drink started with a flat kick of watery nothing. The middle was a slight malt sweetness. The finish was hoppy and malty.

Nothing really great here, but nothing terrible. This is not a bad beer, but it's a quite expensive mediocre one.

This is the beer that got me started on trying other beers and off of extreme crap such as coors light, keystone light, bud light....etc. BUT for me it has been nothing more for me but a gateway beer to better beer. it is really NOT that great. trying it now it seems to have a funny aftertaste and nothing impressive, and perhaps a poor representative of a bock. it gets a low score because of that.

NOTE: i should also add that shiner offers other brews that are much better than this...in other words don't totally throw out the brewery itself.

When I visited my daughter and son-in-law in Houston recently, I wanted to try one of the local brews. This is what they told me to order. It was a dark amber color with no head to it. It had a nondescript malty aroma, and a nondescript , vaguely sweet taste. Actually OK for mouthfeel, and drinkable in the sense that it went down easily. Not one of my favorite beers; hope other offerings from the brewery are better.

M - Significant carbonation for the purported style, though calling this a bock is certainly strange.

Overall, a great tailgate beer, and certainly better than the xxLight usually available. Shiner Amber Lager would be a better name for this beer, but then they wouldn't be able to put the billy goat on the label...